Eye-Openers: How to split a group check in a restaurant

How to handle the check in a group situation? The Awl has some answers. Photo: John Storey/The Chronicle

The ages-old dilemma of splitting a check is confronted, with some smart upshots. The Tartine cookbook spawns a Facebook community. Charles Phan goes to school. The Westin might be up for grabs. Canned beer or draft beer? All that reading and James and the Giant Peach references, right this way.

From the local scene:

Man cooks his way through the Tartine cookbook, spurs a very popular Facebook group to discuss the book. [Wall Street Journal]

Charles Phan cooks for kids at Hillcrest Elementary School in the Portola District. [ABC]

Jonathan Gold drops some great literary references: “And the last time I was in, the Chong-qing fried chicken was nearly as good as I’d ever had: buried in a fragrant hillock of fried dried peppers and nearly vibrating, like the magic crocodile tongues in James and the Giant Peach, with the happy tingle of Sichuan peppercorns. If I hadn’t been sober at the time, I could have sworn that I saw the crunchy little nuggets wriggling deeper into their vermillion mountain of heat.” [LA Weekly]